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 The lonely grave of Sarah Hanks - to be found near the Walhalla Cricket Ground “You have been made aware that we have been visited by the plague of small-pox,and that the case has resulted in the death of the patient…" So begins an article in the Gippsland Times dated 30 March 1869. Today smallpox has been eradicated (existing only in a secure vault somewhere in a far off land, never to be released), but in the nineteenth century it was the plague. Highly infectious and in 30% of cases, fatal, it was no respecter of social station. It was spread by contact and despite vaccination being available (thank you Mr. Jenner), in the 1870s not everyone would have been routinely vaccinated as they are now. The introduction of smallpox into a small closed community such as the township of Walhalla in Gippsland, Victoria, could have had devastating consequences. In researching THE POSTMISTRESS, I came across the following tragic tale, which I incorporated into my own story In late 1868, smallpox came to Melbourne, resulting in the infection of 42 people and the death of at least 9. In February 1869 A young bride, 21 year old, Sarah Ann Hanks, recently married in Melbourne, returned to Walhalla with her new husband, a miner, Thomas Hanks. She and her husband stayed for a few days in one of the hotels in town but on 14 March, feeling unwell, the town’s resident doctor, Henry Hadden was sent for. Dr. Hadden had some first hand experience of smallpox and when the first tell tale signs (spots around the mouth) appeared, he acted fast. The town authorities were alerted and the hotel where the Hanks were staying was locked down. The police located an empty house some way out of town where the patient could be placed in isolation, but her husband refused to co-operate. Instead he spirited Sarah out of the hotel to his own residence, a cottage just north of the township. On the advice of the doctors (Dr. Boone and Dr. Hadden), the town authorities erected an eight foot high palisade around the house, effectively isolating the inhabitants. In the meantime the doctors set about a radical vaccination programme to ensure everyone in the town was protected from the disease. Only Dr. Hadden was permitted to enter the infected house and despite the best care he could give the woman, she died in agony (her screams could be heard throughout the town) on the 23rd March. The authorities faced a dilemma. The cemetery was to the south of the town and they could not in all good conscience, permit the carrying of her coffin through the major population centre so Sarah Ann Hanks was interred in a ten foot deep grave on top of the hill above her home. Her lonely grave can still be seen today near to the Walhalla Cricket Ground. Her husband and his son had by this time contracted the disease. They were removed to the temporary hospital well out of town and the house and everything in it was burned to the ground. The surviving Hanks family did not succumb to the disease and left town shortly after being cleared. From The Leader (Melbourne 3 April 1869): “A correspondent at Walhalla, writing on the 25th of March, relates some additional particulars connected with the death of Mrs Hanks from smallpox, near that township : — ' Drs.Boone and Hadden say that this case was one of thd worst they ever met with, and Dr. Boone was a medical inspector to a smallpox hospital in America. The building in which Mrs Hanks died, and that adjoining it, were burnt to theground, and Mr Hanks, his child and nurse, have been removed by the police to some empty buildings at the Britannia Ree , three miles from Walhalla, approaching the end of Stringer's Creek.' Dr. Hadden, the hero of the hour, did not live long to enjoy his moment. On 29 May, returning from Melbourne to Walhalla, he was found dead on the coach between Buneep (Bunyip) and Shady Creek. No cause was established, but it is widely assumed he died of alcohol poisoning. In an odd twist of life imitating art, at the time I began writing THE POSTMISTRESS, and the characters of Caleb and Doctor Bowen came to life, I hadn’t read the story of the smallpox scare. I had no idea that Walhalla’s real life doctors during that period were an alcoholic Irishman and a dissolute American… sometime fiction mirrors fact in the oddest ways! References: For a detailed account of the Smallpox scare: A tale of Old Wallhalla - How we fought the smallpox in Wallhala by Henry Thomas Tisdall Trove (for contemporary newspaper accounts of the smallpox scare) and Henry’s Hadden’s Eventful Life and Unusual Death THE POSTMISTRESS is out now and available at all good booksellers around Australia and as an ebook at your favourite store. Click HERE to purchase 
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 If you are familiar with my earlier books, you may be wondering why the move from the trouble and strife of the English Civil War to the wilds of the Australian bush. Growing up my head and heart were firmly in English history and like, I suspect, many Australians, I considered Australian history a bit ho hum… no castles, kings, civil wars. Just dust and dirt and convicts! However like Australia itself, I have grown up. I have travelled to the remote and lonely corners of this country in the company of my husband who has a passion for the Australian bush. Together we have stood in ruined homesteads and wondered about the life led by the people who settled a country that had no softness to spare for the weak. I have also explored my own family history - convicts, sailors and entrepreneurs. What tipped my passions was reading a very badly researched historical romance set in my own home town of Melbourne. The story was so inaccurate, it was funny, but what upset me were the comments of reviewers on Amazon thanking the author for introducing them to this hitherto unknown history of Australia.  A great place to dream up a new world... This got me thinking and over a good bottle of red wine, while camping on the Snowy River, my husband and I started to mull over what sort of Australian story I could tell. We decided that a small town with a set cast of characters offered the greatest scope for a series of historical stories, but where? On our way home from that camping trip we stopped, as we often do, in Walhalla - a tiny town deep in the valleys of the Great Dividing Range. A pretty, peaceful place with a permanent population of only twenty people. Following the discovery of gold in Stringers Creek in the 1860s, Walhalla became a gold mining town and at the time of Federation one of its mines was the highest yielding gold mine in Australia (and was honoured with being shown on one of the first stamps of the new Commonwealth). It ticked all the boxes for my fictional town. And why a fictional town? Quite simply I didn’t want to be constrained by the geography and history of a real town, but there are strong elements of Walhalla in my fictional Maiden’s Creek that anyone knowing the town may recognise and I have had fun researching some incidents in the early history of the town that fitted uncannily into my own narrative (more on those in future posts). So I had my town, the next step was to build the world of Maiden’s Creek. Who were the people who inhabited the town? What did the geography of the town look like? What I loved about creating this world is the mix of nationalities (English, Welsh, Scottish, Cornish, Americans, Italians, Germans, Russians…) and personalities that were drawn to the gold fields. Shopkeepers, brothel owners, bakers, general stores, undertakers, livery stables and of course the gold miners all coming together against incredible physical odds to scrape a living from the earth. So take yourself back to 1871...when the Sale coach leaves Melbourne and stops at a genuine stop on the old coach road called Shady Creek, the Maiden’s Creek coach driven by Amos Burrell arrives, ready to whisk you over the hills, across the Thompson River and down the steep, treacherous roads that will take you to Maiden’s Creek… THE POSTMISTRESS is on sale now in all good booksellers and retailers... Images of present day Walhalla and surrounds... There are only two reasons to go to Maiden’s Creek: Gold and a chance to escape your past. Welcome to Maiden's Creek - a gold mining town in Victoria. The year is 1872 and the township of Maiden's Creek is thriving. Although it is less than ten years since gold was first discovered in the creek, there is now a substantial community clinging to the steep sides of the Maiden's Creek valley. The wealth coming from the gold mines is reflected in the presence of banks, churches, general stores, innumerable pubs, a Chinese market garden and, of course, the ladies of the night. It also boasts a newly constructed post office with telegraph linking the town to the outside world. It is unfortunate that the only applicant for the role of postmaster turned out to be a woman, but she is capable, competent and well respected. Her name is Adelaide Greaves. As a widow with a ten year old son she has to make her way in the world - just don't ask her too many questions. Fast forward to 17 June 2019 and Adelaide's story, THE POSTMISTRESS, hits the bookshelves (both actual and digital) today. #SHELFIE CONTEST Runs from 17 June - 4 July
If you see a copy of THE POSTMISTRESS 'in the wild' take a photo of it - in store, on your eBook reader, on your book shelf, - wherever you wish. Then post it on your favourite social media page, whether that be Insta, Twitter, Facebook. Tag me and hashtag the post with #thepostmistressbook. But wait... there's more! You know all those self help seminars you go to that tell you to visualise your goal? Well, seeing my book in an airport bookshop was always my visualisation so there is a bonus mystery prize if you happen to see it in an airport bookshop! I’ll be drawing the contest on 5 July. I hope you win!  There is NOTHING funny about book piracy... and by that I mean the sites that steal your book and offer it up for free download. The reality is that most of them are only phishers looking for the unsuspecting reader (and what sort of reader goes to pirate sites!) to upload credit card or other details. Since I signed up to Blasty.com, I have recorded over 3000 pirate sites with my books on them. I gave up trying to chop the head of this particular hydra after one site offered a REPORT COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT button which I duly clicked and ended up infecting my computer with malware. No, they are not nice at all. BUT just occasionally you come across something that makes you laugh out loud... and just the other day I stumbled on a pirate site offering up GATHER THE BONES for free download (and no, I am not sharing the link... it went straight to BLASTY). In uploading the book, the pirate had evidently copied from another pirate site that had uploaded the book description (the blurb) in a foreign language. Our enterprising pirate had then run the foreign language blurb through Google translate and the resultant hot mess is laugh out loud funny... so here for your enjoyment is the blurb for GATHER THE BONES... pirate style... ENJOY AND SHARE... And if you would like to purchase a legal copy of GATHER THE BONES... Click the button below...
It's been a long time since I last sat down to write a post (a whole year in fact!) ... and for that you can blame two contracts and four books to write! It doesn't leave much time for any other kind of writing. However it is all coming to the pointy end now and I am delighted to reveal the cover for the first of my Australian Historical Romances... THE POSTMISTRESS. It might surprise you to know the most nerve wracking part of the publishing process is the cover! When you publish independently you have full creative control over what goes on the cover of your book (and even then it can be hit or miss!). However when your book is in the hands of a publisher, you have to trust that the design team (affectionately known as the 'cover fairies') are in tune with your vision. Having poured a year of my life into writing THE POSTMISTRESS, it was with one eye half closed and my breath held, that I opened the email with the cover concept and I have to say the cover fairies have totally got it right! God bless them. I LOVE this cover... it captures the feel of the Australian bush in summer - that crackling dryness in a McCubbinesque manner and the girl... well, the girl, is Adelaide! I hope you love the cover... and I hope you love the book... It is not officially released until 1 July BUT you can preorder it now! Just click the button below and it will take you to a page with all your favourite digital stores AND the ability to preorder the print book too! So get clicking and be among the first to have THE POSTMISTRESS drop on to your kindle or into your post box. That's it from me for the moment. If you want to be the first to know my news then please subscribe to my newsletter. I promise you won't be bombarded - I only send it out when I have news (and you get a free book!) SO HERE SHE IS... THE POSTMISTRESS (Australian Historical Romance)
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Alison StuartAlison writes historical romances and short stories set in England and Australia and across different periods of history. Archives
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